Kuznetsk Alatau

The highest peak:

The Old Fortress

Height of the top:

2211 m

Kuznetsk Alatau is a low-medium-high plateau in the system of the Sayano-Altai mountain region in the south of Western Siberia, about 300 km from south to north and a width of up to 150 km. The greatest height is 2211 m (Old Fortress Plateau). Kuznetsk Alatau is not a single ridge, but consists of several ridges of medium height, between which are the valleys of rivers. It is a watershed of the rivers Tom and Chulym (tributaries of the Ob). In the west it is bounded by Kuznetskaya, and in the east by the Minusinsk Basin. In the south it borders on the Abakan ridge Of the Western Sayan, In the north has no clear boundary. Highlands includes the mountain range of the Celestial Teeth.

It extends submeridially, steeply rising over the Kuznetsk basin lying to the west and descending gently to the east towards the Minusinsk depression. The length is about 300 km, width - up to 150 km. Tops in the south. Parts reach a height of 2000 m above the sea level. In the north, the altitude gradually decreases and at the northern extremity is about 300 m. The overall shape is determined by the prevalence of low leveled watersheds, above which stand individual mid-mountain peaks as a consequence of selective denudation and neotectonic uplifts of magmatic rocks (Puh-Tasqyl mountains - 1820 m , B. Taskyl - 1447 m, B. Kanym - 1872 m, Cross - 1549 m), etc. A significant contrast of the flattened watersheds and deep valleys of the rivers White and Black Iyus, Kiya, Tes, etc. is observed. Several alignment surfaces, which is emphasized by the stratification of the relief. In the south of the mountain massif in 1989 the reserve "Kuznetsk Alatau" with the area of ​​412,9 thousand hectares was created. Through the Kuznetsk Alatau, closer to its southern tip, is the railway branch of Novokuznetsk - Abakan.

Mountains

The mountains are composed of limestones, quartzites, siliceous and argillaceous shales of the Proterozoic and Lower Paleozoic eroded by numerous intrusions of gabbro, diorites, granites, syenites, etc. The modern relief was created in the Neogene-Anthropogenous period as a result of the raising and dismemberment of uneven-aged equalization surfaces. The slopes of the ridge are asymmetric: on the eastern slope the river valleys are well developed, on the western steep slope the rivers flow in narrow valleys with large slopes; They have many rapids and a shiver. For the Kuznetsk Alatau, tashyls are typical - the topsides of rocks and massifs, covered with stone placers descending into river valleys. Minerals: iron and manganese ores, gold, chromites, etc. Quaternary glaciations covered only the highest parts of the Kuznetsk Alatau, where they left traces in the form of moraines, carrions, glacial lakes. It is present sovr. Glaciation represented by glaciers. Kuznetsk Alatau has 4 area of ​​development Glaciers modern: 1) northern - g.B.Taskyl, Bobrovaya; 2) central - Mr.B.Kanym in the upper reaches of the Black Iyusa; 3) southeast and southern - hr.Tegir-Tash, Kara-Tash. Total 91 glacier with a total area of ​​6,79 km2. Ice thickness from 12 m to the first tens of meters. Type of glaciers - carved, hanging, prisclonovye. Very low position of glaciers - 1250-1450 m. For the continental continents of the continents (50-55 degree N) this is the only case in the world. The amount of precipitation is over 1000 mm per year, in places almost 3000 mm. The mountain taiga vegetation predominates (spruce, fir, cedar, rarely larch taiga). Above 1800-2000 m - subalpine meadows, shrubby, moss-lichen and stony mountain tundra.